Things Guys Have Said to Me at the Boxing Gym

1. “So, I’ll make you a deal. You win your fight, you take me out to dinner.” — The dude named Marco who works there that I mentally call “The Situation” because of obvious similarities. Marco is at least a foot shorter than me and always greets me by yelling “Hey girrrrllll!” and then giggling. Not sure how he thought this was a fair deal.

2. “She’s probably making sandwiches for her new boyfriend.” — My coach, on why I wasn’t in muay thai kickboxing class last week. He’s such a jokester.

3. “Are you OK?” — Every guy who has ever given me a good bloody nose sparring.

4. “Are you OK?” — Every guy who barely hits me after deciding to work on their sparring skills for the first time with the girl. Usually their skills are not so great but they feel really bad about not-hitting me anyways.

5. “So, sorry if this is an impolite question, but… are you straight?” — My friend Sebastian. I couldn’t tell at the time if he was hitting on me or just making a comment about my lack of femininity. I am straight, I just box sometimes though.

6. “Nice Facebook post yesterday.” — My buddy Andy, who was referencing a picture of me making out with some dude at a party.

7. “So do you have a boyfriend or what?” — Marco again. Actually this happens about once every few weeks.

8. “You’re a part of this team.” — My friend Rich, who is one of the hardest workers I know, after a deadlifting workout.

9. “Let me present to you the 2012 Chicago Golden Gloves Champion!” — My coach Rick, to the gym at large. A bunch of guys had entered the Golden Gloves tournament, but this time he was referring to me because I was the chick who actually won.